


i'll never leave your side

by shyv2rxrxr (hexburn)



Series: Catching Fire, Catching Cold | LEC Hanahaki [4]
Category: League of Legends RPF
Genre: Cute, Declarations Of Love, Flashbacks, Fluff, Hanahaki Disease, Late Night Conversations, M/M, white roses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-30 03:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20807702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hexburn/pseuds/shyv2rxrxr
Summary: Jesper's hanahaki doesn't hurt, no, not at all but for the scratches of the thorns in his throat.What hurts a little more is being jealous. Thankfully, Jesper doesn't feel that often, and Marc makes it clear that Jesper is a step above the rest in his heart.Why, then, is it so very hard to confess?





	i'll never leave your side

_ I know your every move, baby girl  _

_ You gave the blood that saved me _

** _I'll never leave your side_ **

_ Now you'll always be a part of me _

Only seconds after petals fall from Jesper's lips and into the cup he keeps at his computer, Marc is already patting his back worriedly.

"Hey, Jeppe, are you sick? Maybe we should stop so you can get some sleep?" he suggests with brown eyes so sincere and beautiful behind gold-wire glasses, and Jesper can't lie to Marc, but unlike the roses, his words get stuck on the tip of his tongue.

After all, what is he supposed to say? Where does he even begin?

\---

He's had hanahaki for Marc since the first time they went shopping before LEC together.

When Marc had bought him a coffee, when Marc had chosen his favourite fruits, when Marc had pointed out all the things Jesper likes… That's the day that led to the night when Jesper plucked the first white rose petal from his mouth.

_ White roses. Innocence. Purity. When laid against a red rose, a symbol of England. _

_ Marc's homeland, the one he loves to take Jesper around. Jesper's innocence, a byproduct of his youth and inexperience. _

But the roses aren't only beautiful and elegant, just like Marc; they're also painfully scratchy in Jesper's throat, carving thin bloody lines in his trachea with their tiny thorns. The pain usually isn't too severe. It's made him tend towards smooth, creamy foods, but other than that, it usually doesn't bother him too much. He's gotten very good at making blended soups. Arguably, though, Marc has gotten better.

Every week since Jesper first became sick, Marc and Jesper have made soup together. At first Marc made more salty soups, believing that Jesper had a cold or perhaps strep throat and that salty broth would cure him. Jesper had cried so much at the salt's sting that Marc quickly learned his lesson, so they made much more neutral soups after that, blending sweet potatoes one week and pumpkins the next and leafy greens the week after that. Marc's defensiveness of Jesper's food was so sweet and kind, especially since Jesper could barely eat solids after the thorns intensified with the hanahaki's age.

"Hey, that's for Jeppe!" Jesper remembers Marc saying, swatting Patryk's hand away when he tried to take a ladleful of sweet red pepper soup out of Jesper's stores.

"Is your virginity for him, too?" Patryk had snarked, but he put the ladle back, snickering at Marc's blush and at how Jesper whined. The red lines in Jesper's throat protested at so much exertion. Still, suffering the joke had been worth it for how pretty Marc had looked, red-cheeked and defensive.

It had made Jesper think he had a chance, though his shyness meant he still keeled over a cup that night in his bed, spitting out white roses that he'd throw out the next morning. He's tried planting the prettiest ones, but they die quickly without a pearl or roots to draw nutrients.

The sting of the thorns and the beauty of the roses is kind of poetic, poetic in how it perfectly mirrors Jesper's love for Marc - and he's not ashamed to call it love, now, at least in his own thoughts. 

Marc is amazing. He's charismatic, so eloquent, skilled with words unlike Jesper and witty to boot. He's not afraid to be sweet and cute and kind, even as he's a strong and vocal leader for them, always willing to take responsibility. He’s intelligent and clever, able to grasp the concepts of League so well that even the analyst desk recognises his skill. Jesper loves everything about him.

But Marc is also, just maybe, a little bit hard to read, a little hot-and-cold. Sometimes he'll tuck Jesper in after a rough game, but other times he's too busy posing for Jake's camera. Sometimes he feeds Jesper grapes and berries, other times he plays with Daehan instead or leans against Mickey, and every little flirtatious grin Marc gives them stings Jesper's heart worse than the roses' thorns.

Still, there is one thing that Jesper and Marc share only between them. Jesper is happy to proclaim that he's the only one Marc stays up so late to duo with.

\---

"I'm fine, we can keep going," Jesper says between feeble coughs. He's lucky to only bleed from his throat, and even then only occasionally. His hanahaki isn't bad. In fact, he doesn't even violently cough up blood or petals at all, instead just sort of blooming roses in his mouth and spitting them out as they materialise. Sometimes a spare leaf will stick to the roof of his mouth, though, like right now, so his reflex is to cough to try and push it forward.

Before Jesper can cease his chest's constrictions, his face is cupped in Marc's hands and the roses that were in his throat spill from his mouth in plain sight. He scrambles to cover his mouth, but it's too late, and Marc's eyes look back at him, stunned. "Jeppe… you have hanahaki?"

Jesper averts his gaze from Marc's fearful, worried face, even though Marc tries to move his head and force Jesper to look at him. "...Yeah," he mumbles at last. The petals cluster up, getting caught on the lump in his throat.

"Who- can- can I ask who it's for?" Marc asks quietly, shyly, settling his hands onto Jesper's shoulders like he's suddenly realised that he's too close.

With a deep, coughing breath, Jesper steels his nerves. 

Now is the time. 

Now is the time to tell him. 

He squeezes his eyes shut, he can't look. "It's for you," he whispers, afraid of Marc's reaction.

As soon as he says it, Marc pulls him into a bone-crushing hug, burying his face in the crook of Jesper's neck and murmuring, "Oh, thank God," over and over again between "I love you"s, and Jesper hugs him back with surprised but overjoyed tears in his eyes. "I love you. I love you!" Marc chirps, leaning back to look at Jesper's smiling face and bright sky eyes. "Can I kiss you?" he says quickly, giddy and eager and oh so gorgeous with the light of love in his eyes.

Of course Jesper says yes.

Their lips meet and it's like fireworks in Jesper's mind - yeah, he's kissed Finn and Hatrixx and once even Klaj, but he's never kissed someone he's liked as much as he loves Marc. It's wonderful, and perfect, and warm and sweet and he can taste coffee on Marc's lips, and it's so amazing that Jesper barely even notices when the hanahaki pearl worms its way into his mouth. He doesn't even notice at all until the pearl is on his tongue.

Gently, with eyes still closed and lashes fluttering as he savours the memory of Marc's lips on his, he pulls the pearl from his mouth, and opens his eyes to a marvellous sight.

The pearl is smooth, perfectly spherical with one small, beautiful imperfection - a pure white rose, tiny, blooming on the surface of the pearl and looking as though it were perfectly sculpted. It's perfect.  _ It's perfect, _ thinks Jesper, gazing in awe.

"You're so beautiful," Marc murmurs into Jesper's lips, holding him close and looking at the pearl-rose combination.

They kiss again, then giggle as they hold hands and set the pearl carefully aside, then Marc takes his hand and they leave their computers flickering confusedly and fall into Jesper's bedsheets together, still with smiles on their faces.

Their lips almost never part, and pink roses bloom in Jesper's cheeks all night long.

**Author's Note:**

> i just couldn't bear to hurt sweet jeskla with painful hanahaki, he's baby!


End file.
